Nurses at wound care clinic help patients on 'long road' to healing

The goal of staff members at Agnesian HealthCare Wound Care Center in Fond du Lac is to determine the right treatment for stubborn wounds and get patients back to their normal lives.
Sarah Kloepping/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Sheil endured the ulcers and treatment elsewhere for several years. He’s been coming to Agnesian for the past six months and said he has seen an marked improvement in healing. As part of his treatment, Schmitz and Dr. Jon Moen evaluate and clean the remaining wounds before putting a cast on his left foot as part of treatment.

Schmitz and Moen are part of a nearly 4-year-old program launched by the hospital. Like many others working in the clinic, they made the move to specialized care from more general medical practice.

They’re also working in a field — health care— that’s expected to continue growing in Wisconsin in the coming years as baby boomers age and seek more care. State numbers project the sector will see an increase in employment to the tune of 13,000 new jobs by 2024.

At the heart of the job for Schmitz is getting patients healed and back to their normal lives.

“It’s amazing to go into the room and see — like we saw today — how small those wounds have become from where (Sheil) was,” said Schmitz, who came to the center with history working with wounds in general surgery.

Wound care focuses on stubborn or complicated short- and long-term injuries. Many are associated with diabetes — like Sheil’s ulcers — or surgical wounds, and in some cases, radiation wounds. Treatment ranges from cleaning and dressing wounds to the use of hyperbaric chambers to inundate wounds and patients with a high concentration of oxygen delivered under pressure to assist healing.

Many health care systems offer wound care programs similar to Agnesian's, with a number of providers around the state and nation offering similar services. The Fond du Lac clinic is an example of types of specialized jobs, and care, providers offer patients.

“It’s a long road,” Sheil said about going though treatment that includes use of the hyperbaric chamber. It now seems like there could be an end in sight.

“It seems like it’s a taken a lifetime. It’s been a couple years that I’ve had this, but it’s a big improvement from where I was,” the Fond du Lac resident said.

Order to chaos

Moen, medical director of the wound center, came to the center from general surgery, enticed by the challenge of establishing a new program that has locations in Fond du Lac and Waupun. An Eau Claire native, he’s been a doctor in Fond du Lac for almost three decades.

“The rewards of medicine are the same that they’ve been forever: to see people get well; to see people heal up; to see people return their regular lives,” he said. “Those are the rewards that have always drawn people to medicine, and continue to do so.”

The goal of the team is to bring order to chaos by measuring the wound's length, width and depth. Photos aid staff in determining whether it's healing, and if so how fast. Moen said some appointments can take an hour.

“Wound care is hard work,” he said. “It’s very labor intensive. It’s a lot of bandages. ... We have patients who come in here three times a week who have complicated dressings. If you want to be successful, you have to be a bulldog and just stay on it.”

Schmitz agrees.

“It can be a long road, and a difficult road. ‘OK this isn’t working, let’s try this. This is working, let’s continue this,'" she said.

Those incremental gains are just as important as the large steps. That’s something Amanda Neubauer, the center’s registered nurse supervisor emphasizes to patients facing stubborn wounds.

“Wounds take time, so even if your wound is slightly smaller, the patient might see that as ‘I’m not healed yet,’ but you have to teach them celebrate the small healings, the week-by-week process,” the Oakfield native said.

Patient visits range from once a week to three times a week. Staff strive to keep the median healing time at less than 30 days. The center typically has 100 to 120 patients a week and runs on a staff of 12.

Rob Servais, the center’s program director and a Green Bay area native, oversees the operations of the program, including data analysis, business development, and hiring.

The center recently hired a registered nurse, bringing the operation to full employment. He looks for people with a background in surgical and podiatry settings as potential hires.

While not on the front line of care, he shares in the successes of the team.

“I do a lot of work in the background, but it’s very rewarding seeing patients walk out,” Servais said. “Yesterday a patient healed and our whole team celebrated with them. Those are the kinds of things that keep you at this job.”